OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Divers from Olympic National Park were searching Tuesday for the body of a man reported to have gone underwater at the Devil’s Punchbowl area of Lake Crescent and never resurfaced.
“There’s still a person missing at the lake as far as I know,” Clallam County Fire District 2 Fire Chief Jake Patterson said Tuesday afternoon after witnesses reported what they had seen at about 11:30 a.m.
Patterson said witnesses said they saw a man jump into lake, disappear, emerge, disappear and resurface again, then disappear again without emerging.
When the call came into county 9-1-1 dispatchers, Olympic National Park had a ranger in the area but no boats on the lake. So Fire District 2 was called about 11:40 a.m.
District personnel responded from Station 21 (Gales Addition) and 22 (Dry Creek). Firefighters drove most of the way along the Spruce Railroad Trail and then hiked a short distance to the Devil’s Punchbowl, Patterson said.
A boat with Olympic National Park divers arrived about 20 minutes later and began the search, Patterson said.
Park service personnel took over the scene upon arrival and were expected to provide updates, he said.
“We have an ongoing search-and-rescue operation, and that’s all the information we have at this time,” said Olympic National Park Management Assistant Amber Nixon.
In July 2006, the body of 20-year-old Jesse Sayre Thanem of Port Angeles was located by National Park Service scuba divers in about 55 feet of water at the Devil’s Punchbowl.
The Devil’s Punchbowl is a narrow, rocky cove on Lake Crescent along the Spruce Railroad Trail.
Its depth, which can reach up to 200 feet, makes it a popular swimming and diving area.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at brian.gawley@soundpublishing.com.
